Positive Information For Millions of Americans or Snippy Partisan Swipe: "America a rising manufacturing star?"

I subscribe to the "Daily Grind", a conservative right-wing newsletter put out by the people behind the Americans for Limited Government blog NetRightDaily. To say that I read their content would be a misnomer,but I do quickly skim over the content occasionally and agree with some of what they have to say. When those occasions arise, it's generally because the articles start off as a commonsense appeal for bipartisanship legislation that address many of issues affecting our country but quickly disintegrate into conservative speak and political bashing of  Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and liberal/progressive ideology, while completely forgetting that Republican conservatism as practiced by those in House and Senate are just as much to blame for the current political problems that we face. 

Case in point, below is a recent article that touts the potential reemergence of the American manufacturing sector due to the improvement of the manufacturing climate in U.S.  Many companies that fled this country over the past 3 decades for cheap labor and less restrictive regulations are now looking to come back to this country because labor and energy costs have become more competitive in recent years. 

By the end of what was a good news, positive story about the return of manufacturing jobs to this country and what it would mean for millions of Americans, becomes a snippy, partisan swipe at the Obama Administration for trying to ensure that we have clean air to breath and water to drink. 

Take a feel good story and turn it on its head in an attempt to score a political point.  It's maddening! 

NetRightDaily
By Rick Manning 

The Boston Consulting Group just released a study comparing manufacturing costs around the world, and the United States fared surprisingly well. Writing about the U.S. and Mexico, the authors explain the improved manufacturing environment saying, “Because of low wage growth, sustained productivity gains, stable exchange rates, and a big energy-cost advantage, these two nations are the current rising stars of global manufacturing.” 

The big energy-cost advantage is the key. 

While China struggles with higher energy costs, the United States is just scraping the surface of its natural bounty of fossil fuels. The innovative unlocking of a vast sea of natural gas and oil over the past decade has transformed the United States’ position in the future of where world manufacturing will grow and prosper. In fact, CNBC reports that natural gas prices alone have fallen by between 25-35 percent in the past decade in North America. This drop in energy costs is contrasted by a 135 percent rise in natural gas costs in China. 

And the U.S. manufacturing sector is beginning to respond with federal government measures of industrial production up 0.4 percent for its sixth consecutive monthly gain, the Federal Reserve reported last week. Manufacturing output advanced 1 percent in July, its largest increase since February. 

CNBC quotes Hal Sirkin, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group saying that the old assumptions that manufacturing is cheaper in Asia and South America have “fundamentally changed.” 

“This means companies will start to move manufacturing out of those expensive countries if they can, to cheaper countries like the U.S.,” Sirkin said. 

Increased U.S. manufacturing means more much needed good paying jobs, and while the days of hundreds of workers operating alongside one another building a car is outmoded, a resurgent U.S. manufacturing sector is welcome in what has otherwise been a jobless recovery. 

These are the exact kind of jobs that our nation still desperately needs as the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that more than 7.5 million Americans are working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job. What’s even more startling is that for the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the number of food stamp recipients remains at crisis levels with more than 45 million people receiving food assistance each month for three straight years. 

Ironically, the very Obama Administration which purports to want to help those in need is pushing regulations like EPA’s proposed power plant rules. Regulations that put the very energy cost advantage our nation currently enjoys at risk by deliberately driving up energy costs by closing down dozens of coal burning power plants. The same agency is also pushing ozone standard regulations that the House Energy and Commerce Committee says “is already contributing to uncertainty and holding back investment.” 

America’s free enterprise system and abundant natural resources have given our nation another opportunity to rebound from the moribund new normal of despair that President Obama and those of his ilk seem to embrace. 

The only question that remains is whether America will choose a path toward prosperity or the continual downward drift to the ash heap of history. 

Rick Manning is the vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government.

Could Chris Christie Republicans be the biggest losers?

And so it begins, the Republicans from the far-right waste no time bashing Christie after his election victory on Tuesday, he he he ...

The Virginia race strips away almost any reason why conservatives should not look toward a third party in 2016, as the national Republicans attempt to foist another "candidate who can win" down their throats.

By Rick Manning - NetRightDaily

National political pundits are busily fluffing up the narrative that the 2013 gubernatorial election has made New Jersey Governor Chris Christie the front runner for the Republican nod for president in 2016, while the narrow loss by conservative Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor's race spells the beginning of the end for the conservative movement.

The Washington Times writes in its coverage of the New Jersey Governor's race that the decision by Democrats to not put up a credible challenge to incumbent Chris Christie, "… helped to clear the path for Mr. Christie to drive up his margin of victory in the governor's race, which political observers and Republican insiders said would send a message that the national party can broaden its appeal and bolster its brand without tacking to the tea party right.

They are wrong for at least three reasons. Two of these are tactical and one is strategic.

New Jersey Governor Christie dramatically increased his own electability during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when just prior to the 2012 presidential election, he went out of his way to embrace President Obama, earning support within the state, and enmity from Republicans around the country. Few outside of New Jersey will forget the damage Christie's hug did to the Party's chances to defeat Obama.

The result is that the very same event that helped propel Christie's in-state popularity will be disastrous for him outside the state.

On the other hand, the Virginia governor's race was decided by one percent with Democrat Terry McAuliffe receiving well under a majority of the votes after significantly outspending Republican Cuccinelli. Two campaign tricks tipped the scales to McAuliffe and each were worthy of his sleazy reputation.

A major Obama fundraiser/cash bundler was discovered in the last days of the campaign to have been the primary funder of the third party "Libertarian" candidate revealing that he was nothing more than a shill put up by the left to siphon votes from the other economic freedom candidate in the race – Cuccinelli. The third party candidate libertarian poser received more than 6 percent of the total vote.

The second dirty trick engaged in by McAuliffe was a robocall perpetrated by the Virginia Democratic Party to conservative voters alleging that Cuccinelli supported Obamacare. This admission of the unpopularity of Obama's signature achievement was an overt lie, as Cuccinelli was the first Attorney General in the nation to challenge Obamacare in court. The tactic was designed to suppress likely Cuccinelli voters who opposed the law, but were so disgusted by Republican cave-ins in D.C. that they were susceptible to this type of attack.

Thirty years ago, in one of my first political campaigns I was taught a truism that no longer is valid. After I got done complaining about how we were being unfairly treated in the media, my boss answered, "They have the media and we have the money, our job is to spend that money effectively so we can beat their free media advantage."

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Democrat had the media, an approximate two to one spending advantage and the help of a third very important group – the institutional Republicans who continually bad mouthed the conservative candidate and sat on their collective thumbs hoping Cuccinelli would lose so they could declare that only a moderate could win.

The 2.5 percent loss proves that these Republicans who always try to foist "electable" candidates who stand for nothing in primaries would rather deny a conservative victory than have their narrative be proven wrong. If anything the fact that Ken Cuccinelli barely lost after being pilloried in the media without the resources to make his case is an affirmation that conservative principles are winners when people hear them articulated.

Unlike in New Jersey where the Republican moderate dominated his opponent in campaign cash, and the Democrats chose not to run a campaign against him, Cuccinelli was literally starved of funds and support by the Republican chattering class. The Republican National Committee whose sole purpose is to elect Republican candidates failed to produce anywhere near the nine million dollars they pumped into Virginia four years earlier — it was just $3 million this time — in one of the most obvious acts of "friendly fire" campaign sabotage.

Strategically this has major implications for these professional Republican operatives who have already publicly declared war on their Party's political base.

The Virginia race strips away almost any reason why conservatives should not look toward a third party in 2016, as the national Republicans attempt to foist another "candidate who can win" down their throats.

Politically, this puts the Republican ruling class in deep trouble. If someone like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin were to run as a third party alternative to a Christie-type, it is difficult to find a single state that Christie or someone of his ilk would carry. And it is relatively easy to identify at least twenty states where a third party Palin would likely be favored over both Christie and a Democrat opponent.

Sometimes you can win a battle but lose the war, in the next couple of year's establishment Republicans may just find themselves wishing they had gone all-in for the conservative in Virginia, as Ken Cuccinelli could become the symbol of the one way relationship they expect from their much despised political base.

If given a choice, that base just might figure out that they never actually needed the Republican Party bosses after all. When that happens, the Republican Party will go the way of the Whigs and a new, populist, limited government party will take its place.


Rick Manning (@rmanning957) is the vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government.

How Far Does an Education Take You?

Because I somehow found myself on the mailing list of American's For Limited Government(www.getliberty.org) I receive all kinds of right-wing press releases and articles, many of which I disagree with but read to stay informed.

In yesterday's email I received a link to a blog posting by Rebekah Rast who is a contributing editor to the Americans for Limited Government (ALG) News Bureau, her blog post was titled "How far does an education take you ?" and for the first time in a long time, I was reading something from ALG that I can say I truly agree with, but not necessarily for the same reasons.

I agree with the principal that the cost of a college education is much to high and it is a fact that people who are graduating from college today often have debt of over $40,000 as a result upon graduation. I also agree that colleges today do a poor job of preparing students for life after graduation.

According to Rast, there are far to many colleges and far to many more who graduate them

with degrees that are practically worthless in the real world, especially today when college graduates are fighting for jobs alongside those who have more experience and better skills who have been unemployed because of the recession and changing economy, which I agree with also.

I disagree however with her solution, which is to end college subsidies and government funded student loan programs that cost the federal government billions of dollars a year and contribute to the federal deficit, in order to thin the ranks of those going to school just because it is the "American Dream" that families think they need to provide for there children in order to better themselves.

I believe that more emphasis should be put towards steering kids in the direction of 2 year trade schools or apprenticeships, which would save taxpayers and parents a ton of money.

It is becoming more and more difficult to find skilled trade labor today than at any point in history and many trades are dying because people believe that the only road to the good life starts behind a desk in some office complex.

Once parents and government bureaucrats understand this the better everyone will be. After all, not everyone is cut out for or entitled to a college education. I know just as many people that never made it through college that earn near $100,000 a year as tradesman as I do college graduates that earn less that $100,000 year.

Below is a portion of Rebekah Rast column, it is interesting and thought provoking. Even though I disagree with her reasoning, I think this is an issue that need to be addressed for everyone's sake now and in the future.

It is engrained in the heads of the youth that you must go to college to get a good job.

While overall that is good advice, some graduates are finding their $100,000 educations haven’t provided them with the necessary skills for the modern work world.

College is more expensive than ever forcing students to pay more than 400 percent more for a college education today than 30 years ago. And as a result of increased tuition costs, students are carrying mountains of debt and aren’t finding the high-paying, coveted jobs promised to them upon graduation.

In fact, an article by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) highlighted the trend of useless college degrees and cited a study that showed “60 percent of the increase in the number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 worked in jobs that the (Bureau of Labor Statistics) considers relatively low skilled — occupations where many participants have only high school diplomas and often even less.”

The article went on to say, “Of the nearly 50 million U.S. college graduates, 17.4 million are holding jobs for which college training is regarded as unnecessary. The number of waiters and waitresses with college degrees more than doubled in the years 1992-2008, from 119,000 to 338,000, and cashiers with college degrees rose from 132,000 to 365,000.”

What happened to the American Dream for the youth of America?

It’s simple. Because of the push for American youngsters to get college degrees through government subsidies, a four-year degree is becoming less valuable in the working world. Therefore, students graduating with a bachelor’s degree are finding it necessary to get a master’s degree or even a Ph.D to set themselves apart from the masses in order to find a relatively good job that requires their degree.

This new reality, coupled with rising tuition costs, leaves students with a mountain of debt. How are the “5,057 janitors in the U.S. with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees” ever supposed to pay off all that accrued school debt?

The Project on Student Debt estimates that 206,000 Americans graduated from college with more than $40,000 in student loan debt during 2008. Also shocking is a statistic printed in the Business Insider stating that, “Americans now owe more than $875 billion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.”...

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